Ellen Foster

Ellen Foster is adolescent Ellen's first person narrative told in two distinct time frames - now, when she was safe and happy with her foster family, and two years before when she was not. Now: "I live in a clean brick house... When I start to carry an odor I take a bath and folks tell me how sweet I look." Two years before: "When I was little I would think of ways to kill my daddy." Ellen's father was an abusive drunk, and her mother was a defeated woman who finally deserts her only child by taking an overdose of heart medicine. Until her father dies of alcohol poisoning, Ellen continues to live with him near her only friend, a black child named Starletta. Although segregation prevents Ellen and Starletta from living close to each other, Ellen eventually comes to treasure her friendship above all others. "Sometimes I even think I was cut out to be colored and I got bleached and sent to the wrong bunch of folks." Ellen's father's death puts Ellen on a road of of disastrous living situations. Ellen is forced to live with people like her grandmother, who made her work out in the fields like a slave. Or with her Aunt Nadine, who is so obsure to the real world, as soon as she hears a word of truth about her and her daughter from Ellen, she threw Ellen out of her home on Christmas. All of the homes were described in detail that does not miss the humor possible in human relationships, no matter how dismal. "Stirring realism and the warmth of a lively spirit combine to make Ellen Foster an outstanding novel." (Jesse Larsen)

Go Home